My brother Stephen is an Art Director for Martha Stewart's magazine, Living. (Therefore, I hope you all have subscriptions or, at the minimum, buy it from time to time). Over Mother's Day weekend, Stephen and some others from the magazine went up to Martha's house on the southern coast of Mount Desert Island in Maine (she calls this house "Skylands"). He planted things with her, they went to Home Depot and did yoga.
As luck would have it, Martha (to be read: one of her employees) recently blogged about this weekend trip and posted photos that include Stephen.
You see, this story is not just celebrity gossip so that I can say I am connected to a famous person in some obscure, name-dropping way. No, this is an American fairy-tale story. Stephen grew up loving plants. Stephen also grew up loving Martha Stewart (perhaps a bit to my Dad's chagrin). I remember him being a young adolescent pouring over Martha's gardening tome.
He would thumb through the pages and then he would work with my Mom to plant the garden - to prepare the soil, to select the right perennials to bloom in sequence and throughout the whole summer. Then Stephen went to art school and decided to become a graphic designer. After that, he moved to the big city of dreams, NY NY, peddled his portfolio and got a job at, yes, Martha Stewart Living (despite my grandparents' encouragement to try his luck on Broadway). So, five years later, he is spending his weekends with Martha, planting her gardens, conjuring up what he learned from that big book of gardening of hers. Dreams do come true.
2 comments:
I know, I love this fairy tale! Mike and I were driving home from SLC last night and I was telling Mike all about Stephen's love of Martha, her magazine, and gardening. I said to Mike, "See dreams do come true!" It makes me so happy to think of Stephen planting away in Martha's gardens. Love it, love him.
what a happy story... and how cool to have a martha connection?! love her or hate her, she's intriguing to say the least. good to remember that dreams really can come true. by the way, random question. I've been looking with no luck, around italy for lights like those in the first picture. Since France is a little more chic... do you ever see those kind of lights around your parts? I'd like to hang them around our back terrace for the summer... dreamy.
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